Time to set up this log, as my supps should be arriving any day now. From now on instead of running individual logs for each period I think i'll just have the one and keep updating it, seems easier and less cluttered that way.

So, not much to talk about here, I plan on running a proper lean bulk stack for the next 8 weeks (when my supps arrive) and being absolutely strict about it to make sure I gain proper lean muscle and strength. No real weight goals going on here, 2014 is all about feel and just going with the flow. This is a massive change for me, as previously i've written everything down and analysed it. Probably too much. So it's time to shut the book and wing it. My workouts will generally focus around the traditional compound exercises (Chest = Bench, Legs = Squat, Back = Deadlift, Shoulders = Power Rack Press etc) and to keep the heavy weights in my routine these will pyramid up to around 3-5 reps. But again that all depends on how I feel. The aim of 2014 for me is not to train to any schedule, but to make sure I train until i'm dead/worked out. One day that might be 10 sets of squats, the next week it might mean 4. The only rule is that I leave the gym with every fibre of every muscle I planned on working out that workout being worked out completely.

This doesnt mean I dont plan on pushing the hell out of myself. I've been training like this for the last 2 months and the results have been really good, despite a 3 week break in the middle. As a guide my workouts general start with some warmup on a bike or stepper, followed by my main compound exercise first up. This is usually a pyramid up until 3-5 reps, hard reps, then depending on how I feel i'll finish off with a couple of sets of anywhere between 6-20 reps, depending on how my body is feeling. Then I have worked on supplementary exercises, focusing on very strict controlled form. I have also put in a pure contraction exercise in every workout, which squeezes everything until the lactic acid feels like it's popping out through my skin. Like I said above, I havent written down a single workout this year, but i'll get a copy of the next one I do (If I remember) and put it in here as a general example. It's all about feel.

So anyway, on to the stack itself, which is really what everyone wants to see:

I should also add that the good folk at RCSS have put me into their Feb logging group with Resurrect PM and Testogen, which when it arrives I will be adding it in where I can fit it. Most likely i'll use the Resurrect PM ASAP and depending on when the Testogen arrives i'll get it going too.

So that's it for tonight, at least I made a start on this. Thanks for reading, i'll do my best to update most days.

EDIT:

Forgot the workout routine! So again this is all on feel, but I have 4 'mains' to train once a week:

ChestBackLegs (hams/quads)Shoulders

And 4 'supps' to train:

BisTrisAbsCalves

I will train 1 x main and 1 x supp per workout, on most days. The mains will be trained fairly standard once a week, but the supps are all on feel. If my abs feel good but are not scheduled to be trained for another day or 2 i'll just put them into another workout or a separate workout and train them. Same for bis/tris/calves. At the moment I am splitting legs up into hams/quads, so training them twice a week which gives me 5 main workouts a week, and 4 supps, so 1 supp is getting trained twice a week on a rotating roster, for the most part. Sorry if that sounds confusing, it'll be easy to understand once I start logging (tomorrow).

The path of the righteous body builder is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the jealous and the tyranny of greedy supplement manufacturers. Blessed is he who, in the name of health and fitness, shepherds the weak through the valley of supplement darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper.

Hey ron. My previous logs have always been all about stats/goals etc and i've kinda thrown them out the window in 2014. My bodyweight at the moment is 204.5lbs and around 13-14% bf, but I dont weigh myself every day anymore, maybe a couple of times a week if that. The 8-week stack I have planned is a lean bulk, but i'm not going to go 'oh I want to put on x lbs of lean muscle during this period' etc. Nor am I looking at upping my bench/squat/deadlift etc. 2014 for me is purely about feel. I couldnt even tell you what I maxed out on bench for 3 reps last time I trained chest, and that was only 3 days ago. It doesnt matter anyway, what matters is that I got an amazing pump, worked every fibre in every muscle, got damn sore the next day and grew.

I understand it's a bit strange, hell it's really strange for me as i've always written everything down for the 7-8 years i've been training. But it's time for something different. The only thing I count accurately is my calories and splits P/F/C. I spent a lot of 2013 working out exactly how my splits need to work and how many cals I need to cut/lean bulk/bulk/maintenance, so I am going to use that data to build myself in 2014. It's been a big shift for me, not writing things down, not caring about how much weight im lifting etc, but it has had great results so far. One thing I will say that is important is to have a workout partner, and for them to understand the way you want to train and push you. Without a good workout partner i'd be satisfied with less sets/reps/weight and I wouldnt get the results I am looking for. By not being so pedantic about the weight that I lift and focusing more on how I lift it, i've found not only are my muscles filling out better and for longer as well as growing, but that I dont plateau anywhere near as much as I used to. In time as I build size and strength this way I believe i'll smash my current PB's without too much trouble and then continue pushing on.

Now, after saying all of that, you still need goals. I want to build my calves up to respectable levels, I want to see good cuts in both my quads and hams and I want to build serious size to my biceps, that have always lagged behind my tris. I am happy with my back the way it is, everyone would love to have a bigger chest so that's on the goals list too. What's not a goal is stuff like benching 350 or squatting 500 etc. If I get up to that weight then that's great, but that is not a driving factor for me. That's how i've gotten injured in the past, and has lead to serious plateaus in certain bodyparts. I dont want to be looking at my book and saying well I benched 350 for 3 reps last week so this week I need to bench 360 or 350 x 4+ reps, otherwise the workout is a failure. That's how i've pushed myself in the past, and I ended up cheating way too much and plateauing. If I squat 400 one week and destroy my legs then destroy my legs to the same extent squatting 300 the next week that's success in 2014 for me.

Good stuff!!!Since you've changed paying such close attention to all the details, would you say that you found no benefit in it?

I guess for me personally, If I'm not paying attention to all factors then I don't feel I can accurately assess the benefits of a supplement. However, I understand that for a body builder, how you feel and look in the mirror is most important.

The path of the righteous body builder is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the jealous and the tyranny of greedy supplement manufacturers. Blessed is he who, in the name of health and fitness, shepherds the weak through the valley of supplement darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper.

Oh, i'm still most certainly paying a lot of attention to the supplements I take and how they affect me, I mean after all you are dishing out hard-earned on them and you dont want that to be a waste. I'm just not putting figures on it. If a certain supp + my workout + my mealplan makes me feel good, bust open shirts/pants and all of the other things people look for in a supplement, then i'm sure as hell going to recommend it. It's probably too early to tell whether this way of bodybuilding is the best way for me to go, but so far so good. I know I used to put pressure on myself to be 'better than last week' each time I worked out. 'Better' = more weight or more reps. Now 'better' = more pump/more size/better burn/tears/sorer and growth through recovery etc. It's a complete mindset change for me.

Well I havent been able to squat heavy since I injured my hip, my last heavy squat session was 1st week of Jan and I was pushing 350 x 3 back then. Since i've come back and been on recovery the heaviest i've gone was 285 x 6. I'm feeling better today so I will probably use my leg day on Tuesday to go heavier again and see what I get up to, but with a popped hip you really dont want to push it too hard.

Shoulders and bis workout today. Shoulders felt really good, I was really sore and completely worked out by the time I finished military press, so the rear delts really killed me off. Bis on the other hand were a bit of a struggle. It was one of those days when you're pumped to get to a bodypart and train x exercise (in my case I wanted to pump some heavy weight on the preacher curl to start off with) and then some feral bloke is stinking up the equipment doing 10 disgustingly bad form sets on 50lbs, slamming the weights down like he's RC08 and he's just pump 200lbs for 12 or something. So I had to change it up last minute and it took a good 20 minutes of a combination of light, heavy, drop sets and contractions to finally get the pump going. From then on I died off pretty quickly, so still a good workout but a bit of a downer after a really good shoulder workout.

Weight was 208.77lbs, so quite a jump from 2 days ago, but I am not complaining. I did feel a little bloated so I expect that with better control and timing of my eating tomorrow I should be down a pound or 2.

Leg day is awesome day! Managed to get through a pretty tough workout without injuring myself, actually felt quite loose and my hip freed up through the workout, so I was quite happy with my work. See below:

LEGS

Squat:Pyramid sets from 15 reps up to 5 reps, ended up getting to 308lbs x 5 and it felt really easyTotal 8 sets

Front Squat:3 x 8 reps on 88lbs, working on good contraction and pauses at the top and bottom but no lockout

Hack Squat Contractions:3 x 5-8 reps, finally getting the weight up on this and it not hurting my hip, the squeeze was really good. I should point out on this exercise I make extra sure I dont push the weight up or down, I purely squeeze my quad muscles to come out of the squat, then do a really slow negative back down. Hope that makes sense.

Leg Press:4 x 6-8 reps

Leg Ext:3 sets to failure on light weight, good squeeze

CALVES

Standing Calf Raise:6 sets, varying weight, close stance + wide stance mix up, mix of pauses at the top and bottom to continuous movement, alternating from set to set

I was stuffed after this workout, my weight was 210.1lbs so i've put on a bit although i've kept my diet in check this week, maybe it's muscle mass, although that's a lot to put on so quickly, but I still look the same bf%-wise, i'll measure it tomorrow.

Chest/Tris day today, everyones favourite day of the week (apparently). I pushed some OK numbers on flat bench ,but still a bit below the 1RM's I was doing at the end of 2013. It's funny, all my other bodyparts get their strength back quickly, but chest takes forever. Anyway, workout is below:

CHEST

Flat Barbell Bench (pyramid):8 sets, final was 280lbs x 2 reps

Incline Dumbell Flys:5 sets x 5-10 reps, highest weight was 88lbs

Incline Dumbbell Flys:3 sets of 10 then a double drop set

Cable Flys:2 sets to failure

TRICEPS

Cable X (pyramid):5 sets total, up to 5reps on heaviest weight

Rope Pressdown:3 x 8-10 reps

Kneeling Triangle (most people would use a rope for this):5 sets, all drop sets from 5-6reps until 10+ reps for failure

Alright apologies from being away from the computer for the last few days, had some time-out fishing and not having to worry about work etc. was good. Smashed a really good hamstring workout on Saturday, managed to get deadlift up to 270lbs x 6, which isnt massive, but seeing it's the first time i've deadlifted in 2014 I was happy with that. Next week i'll be going for >300lbs as a minimum, because I pulled up really strong.

Last night was a tough shoulders workout. I was still sore in my chest from Thursday (big workout there) so I decided i'd hit the power rack and go for broke, and when I was broken I would switch to 10+ reps and forget the weight, to really kill myself off. The workout below explains what happened:

SHOULDERS

Power Rack Press (Pyramid up, then hold for as many sets as I could):5 pyramid up sets, finished at 165 x 4, then did an extra 2 sets on thatDropped it back to 135lbs and repped out twice

Hammer Strength Shoulder Press:4 sets x 10+ reps

Arnie Press:5 sets in total, all 8+ reps, I think I grabbed some 10lbs weights and did reverse-grip shoulder press as a superset a couple of times, but it was annihilating my front delts

Rear Delt Work (on a set of cables, crossover):4 sets, all to failure

By this stage my delts were blown up (Thanks ANS Dilate) and it was time to switch to some calf work. For calves I did 2 exercises, first exercise was seated calf raise and I pyramided up to 5-6 reps, did another 4 sets on that weight. Next exercise was standing calf raise, light weight, inside/outside/turn in/turn out alternating sets, not sure how many sets in total I did. Then I was done.

Today is quads, hopefully it'll be a good workout, last week was. There's this ongoing saga of supplements I ordered from NP at the start of Jan that still havent arrived yet and they contain the stack I want to run. One day they might make it here and I can get this stack going. Until then, well, I am running out of supps to use, so hopefully they arrive soon.

Good quad day, although it was stinking hot here today, and it hasnt been hot for a while, I was looking forward to cooler weather, so I sweated like a dog. Managed to pump 352 x 2 on squats, and could have done another one easily. It felt really good. After about 30mins in the squat rack pyramiding up then doing a few drop sets, I concentrated on contraction exercise to really get a good workout. Ended up walking out feeling boss as I had swollen quads and blew my tris up for 30mins at the end of the workout.

Tomorrow is chest and abs, it'll be good fun I reckon. Really hanging for my supps to arrive now.